Youth counselor charged with rape of teen at Brockton Boys & Girls Club

Staff Reporter

Tuesday

Jun 10, 2014 at 6:06 PMJun 11, 2014 at 7:30 AM

Former youth counselor Chris Policard denied having any sexual contact with the alleged victim inside the Brockton Boys & Girls Club when detectives interviewed him on Dec. 2, court documents show.

BROCKTON – A youth counselor at the city's Boys & Girls Club, who was once described as "all that is right with these social service programs," has been charged with sexually assaulting and raping a 14-year-old girl inside the club.

Chris Policard, 22, is charged in several assaults dating back to February 2013, according to court documents obtained by The Enterprise, which describe the attacks in graphic detail.

Policard pleaded not guilty in Brockton Superior Court Tuesday morning to two counts of aggravated rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to the clerk's office. The charges relate to alleged incidents in February and September 2013.

Policard denied having any sexual contact with the alleged victim when detectives interviewed him on Dec. 2, court documents show.

Policard, 22, a Brockton native and Roxbury resident, was held at the Plymouth jail on $75,000 with surety or $7,500 cash bail after his arraignment Tuesday. His next court date is July 14.

Policard was ordered to stay away from the victim, from children under 16 and from the Boys & Girls Club.

Brockton attorney Jason Benzaken, who is representing Policard, did not return calls for comment Tuesday. The case is being prosecuted by the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton declined comment on the case Tuesday.

Court documents indicate that the victim told police that Policard began a relationship with her by giving her long hugs in a back stairwell of the inner city facility at 233 Warren Ave. – out of sight from other staffers and children and building surveillance cameras. Those led to kissing, touching and texts between the two.

The teen described their relationship to police as "friends with benefits."

The two met weekly in that back stairwell during afternoons while the club was open, the teen told police. She told police Policard groped her, molested her and had her perform oral sex twice, among other graphic sexual acts.

The two also texted nude photographs to each other, also known as sexting, court documents show.

A Plymouth County grand jury indicted Policard on the charges on May 30.

Policard was fired from his part-time position of youth counselor after he was indicted, said Bill Conlon, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club and a former Brockton police chief. He was initially suspended without pay after club officials learned of the allegations last fall, Conlon said.

Policard grew up attending the Brockton Boys & Girls Club, and had worked as a part-time youth counselor there for about three years, Conlon said. Founded in 1988, the non-profit Boys & Girls Club of Brockton provides after school programs to local children ages 8 to 18. The club has about 1,000 members and about 200 children attend the club daily.

"It's egregious what happened," Conlon said in his office Tuesday. "Somebody that's in a position of trust violated that trust in a huge way and harmed so many people beyond the one child that certainly had absorbed the most of it."

Conlon learned of the allegations in September, he said, after a friend of the alleged victim told a club employee, who then alerted officials.

"We dismissed him from the property immediately," Conlon said of Policard.

Officials filed a Chapter 51A report with the state following the incident, he said. The report is the legal mechanism under which the state Department of Children and Families can investigate alleged abuse or neglect of a child under the age of 18. The state then contacted police.

Police interviewed the alleged victim on Oct. 9, court documents show. A day later, police spoke with Conlon, and detectives toured the club on Oct. 14.

Conlon said officials believe the allegations are "an isolated incident with just one child."

Conlon said the agency has since met with staffers and installed cameras in the stairwell where the incidents reportedly occurred.

"Everybody has been asked to be on high alert at all times for anything that seems suspicious and to avoid one-on-one isolated contact, that it can't be," Conlon said.

Policard had been on probation for charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and assault and battery on a police officer stemming from a Dec. 11, 2008 incident in Brockton, according to Brockton District Court.

Conlon said all club employees and volunteers undergo criminal background checks.

"Nothing of this sort was there. (Policard) had been very carefully screened, so we had no suspicion that there was any risk in hiring this guy," Conlon said.

In 2010, Policard was praised in a profile in a state blog titled, "A haven for kids thrives in Brockton." Written by Jeffrey Simon, director of the Massachusetts Recovery & Reinvestment Office, the blog discussed how the Boys & Girls Club had benefited from stimulus funds for its programs.

"Chris' story typifies all that is right with these social service programs," the blog states. "It gives these kids a safety net and catches them before they fall all the way down."

Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapa@enterprisenews.com or follow on Twitter @MariaP_ENT.

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